Sensory analysis is the structured evaluation of a food product’s appearance, colour, odour, flavour and texture using trained panels or scoring protocols, detecting quality deviations that chemical testing alone cannot identify.
In trade practice
For frozen fruit, dried fruit and honey, trained panels assess off-flavours, fermentation notes and textural defects against a reference standard agreed with the buyer. Results are recorded on structured scorecards and retained as part of the batch quality record. QA teams typically conduct sensory analysis at goods-in alongside certificate of analysis review; a common mistake is relying solely on laboratory data and omitting panel evaluation for products where flavour is a key commercial attribute.
In a specification
A buyer specification may define minimum sensory scores by attribute, reference a named scoring protocol and require panel results to accompany each shipment’s documentation.